Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Myself and my good friend and fellow bassist Martin Elliott will be teaming up for a one off Studio Bass Masterclass at Ananda Studios in Cambridge on January 18th 2015.

Martin Elliott

Ananda Studios have hosted some similar events before focussing on guitar and drums, but the idea is to present, in an intimate studio environment, some solid advice, ideas and also to answer questions that will hopefully enlighten, not just bass players but also recording engineers and producers about all the options involved in recording the bass and creating bass parts.Between the two of us, myself and Martin, whose career has encompassed everything from gigs and sessions with composer Michael Nyman, albums with Gary Numan, numerous West End Musicals as pit musician, as well as the more "traditional" type session work (orchestral scores, film soundtracks and pop bands), we have had a really diverse range of recording session experiences between us, so we're ideally placed to cover a wide spectrum of questions about how to get the best out of your studio time, your bass and your recording set-up.

It'll be very much a hands-on bass recording workshop covering subjects like:

Tone: how different basses, or different tones from a bass, sit in the mix.

Muting and getting a clean sound.

Reading notes/following a chart. Chord charts vs notation.

Use of effects, order of effects, and blending effects.

Post processing, use of plug-ins and editing.

Aural skills.

Being consistent and focusing your concentration.

Listening and making creative decisions. Offering opinions and developing judgement.

Creativity, creating basslines and playing appropriately for the setting.

Timing, rhythmic awareness and use of space.

Playing fills.

Common problems, what to watch out for.

..and of course, whatever else the day throws up!

There will inevitably be some discussion about equipment as well, so there will be some information about and also an opportunity to check out some of the tools I use with assistance from EBS, D'Addario and Spector UK and also IK Multimedia.